Rockets
by Red 'Allen' Walker
Summary: Vlad gets invited to babysit a young Danny. A one-shot for PhannieMay19 - Prompt: Wishes


**_Ahem. I needed an excuse for a platonic, Vlad and Daniel bonding._**

Young Danny Fenton was a good kid. Very sweet. Very bright.

He was very playful and innocent. He bounce all over the room, pointing at the drawings that he stuck on the walls.

Vlad would smile everytime he saw the spark in Danny's eyes whenever the kid told a story. Danny was very fond of the stars, planets, and everything beyond.

Vlad knew it since well, he actually got to babysit the kid when he was 4 years old.

He remembers the encounter very well.

It was October of 1994.

Vlad really didn't know why they chose him to babysit Danny. The kid wasn't particularly messy-- hyper, yes, but destructive, no. Vlad actually had a meeting on that day, but when Maddie called him, he just couldn't say no. He remembers how he begrudgingly he drove to the Fenton household (he frowned at the name) and knocked on the door, only to be met by a small blue-eyed child.

"V-MAN!" Jack appeared from atop the stairs, tumbling down excitedly and patted Vlad on the shoulders. "I'M SO GLAD YOU COULD COME!"

"Yes, Jack, I'm here."

Jack held Danny up and showed him to Vlad. Vlad cringed at how the man carelessly handled to boy.

"This is my boy, Danny! Say hi to V-Man, Danny!"

Danny blushed, at his awkward introduction. "Hi."

"Hello, Danny."

As soon as Jack let him down, Danny sprinted off into the kitchen.

"He can be shy." Jack laughed.

"I noticed." Vlad drawled.

"Vlad?" Vlad snapped towards the voice. Maddie came out of the kitchen, dressed in her jumpsuit as always, but wow, she looked amazing as ever. Vlad felt a pang of jealousy.

"You look like you're doing well, Vlad." She spoke in her ever so sweet voice. "I'm sorry to call you over but we couldn't find anyone to watch over the kids."

"No, no," Vlad chuckled. "It's fine."

Maddie checked her surroundings, and after seeing Danny wasn't anywhere in earshot, she explained.

"Danny's birthday is today, so we wanted to throw him a surprise party. But there was a problem with the delivery so we have to get the things we needed ourselves."

"Like I said, it's fine Maddie. Go get your stuff. I can keep watch over Daniel for you."

"Thanks so much, Vlad."

"Don't you mean 'thank you so much'? Not that I'm complaining." He laughed. Only to be glomped by the overexcited Jack.

"YOU'RE THE BEST V-MAN!"

After Jack and Maddie left, Vlad decided to look for Danny. He found him sitting on the couch, doodling a rocket.

Ok Vlad, you've got this.

"Hi Danny."

"Hi." The boy responded meekly and continued drawing. Vlad could see that it was a some sort of a... bullet? Wait, why does Danny know what a bullet looks like? Were Jack and Maddie building weapons again?!

"Uh..." Danny stopped coloring and picked up the paper. He looked at the ground, as if wondering about his next move. He lifted the paper and showed it to Vlad.

The kid had a neat drawing. Not very refined motorskills, but it was a drawing that didn't have too many smudges. The bullet had fire coming from the bottom of it. Ok Vlad was very concerned.

"It's..." Vlad thought of an adjective. "It looks great Danny." The child's eyes widened, and a blush and a smile grew on his face.

"It's a space thing." Danny took a look at his own drawing. "The one that you ride on to get to space?"

Vlad pieced it together. So it wasn't a bullet. He mentally sighed in relief. Why did he even think of a bullet?

"Oh! It's a rocket?" Vlad kneeled down to Danny's level.

"Yeah! Yeah! That's the name! I keep forgetting..."

Vlad nodded. "Have you seen a rocket before? On TV or something?"

Danny shook his head. "No, but I know it's a bit curvy."

"Well, your rocket looks good, but it's missing a few things." Danny perked up. Vlad grabbed a red crayon and drew a red fin at the bottom. "There's a couple of fins there. Do you want to draw the other one?"

Danny nodded. Vlad offered him the red crayon, but he refused. "I want a green fin."

"Is that your favorite color?"

"It's kinda pretty. Sometimes. When it's not food."

"You don't like vegetables?"

"No! I don't like 'em. But I don't eat the ones with glowy slime."

"Glowy slime?"

Danny didn't answer, instead he let out a delighted giggle when he finished adding the fin.

"What else?" Danny bounced on the floor.

"Well, you need a window to see outside of the rocket."

"Oh!" Danny yelped as he grabbed a black crayon and drew a sloppy circle at the center of the rocket. "I guess I need a door too..." He drew a rectangle at the bottom.

"There we go, all set!" Vlad clapped. Even though he was Jack's kid, he was Maddie's too. He couldn't dislike the boy no matter how he tried.

"Can we draw another one?"

It turns out Danny really liked the Lion King.

Vlad, for one, hasn't seen the movie. He didn't really have the need to watch children's movies. Danny looked offended when he told him. So Danny decided to spoil the whole movie's premise for him.

Soon he had been learning the lyrics to every song.

When the Fentons arrived home, they found the two exchanging questions. Mostly Danny.

"Why are you called V-Man? Are you a superhero?"

Vlad laughed at the question, causing Danny to become even more curious.

"No, I'm not a superhero. Jack, your dad, just calls me that. My real name is Vlad."

"Blood?" Danny spoke, alarmed.

"No, not blood, Vlad. V-L-A-D."

"Oh."

"Danny-boy!"

"Dad!" Danny jumped off the couch and ran towards his parents. "Look at what we drew!"

"Wow, this is really nice, Danny!"

"Uncle Vlad taught me!" Vlad tried not to try at the pet name.

"That's nice sweetie." Maddie ruffled his hair affectionately. "Say, why don't you head to the kitchen Danny? There's something waiting for you there."

Danny immediately disappeared into the hall.

A sound of "Whoa, what's this?" came from the kitchen. Maddie waved for Vlad to come follow them.

Danny was busy staring at the box on the counter. Maddie came up to him and opened the box.

"Happy Birthday Danny!" She smiled as she revealed the rather large cake. Just then, the doorbell rang a lot of times.

Jack opened the door and Danny peered from the kitchen to see who it was.

There was Mr. and Mrs. Foley, Mr. And Mrs. Manson, and the neighborhood kids. All of them had balloons and gifts in their hands.

"Happy Birthday Danny!"

Two kids, on in a bright yellow shirt and red beanie, the other in a hideously pink dress ran up to him. Danny had the biggest smile ever.

Vlad felt Maddie and Jack approach him from behind.

"Thanks so-- I mean, thank you so much Vlad for watching over Danny." Maddie again, thanked him.

"No Maddie, actually, I'm glad I came over. The boy is an absolute delight."

Jack patted him (quite strongly) at the back. Then shoved two bags into his hands.

"What is this?"

"It's for you." Both Fentons smiled.

One had a new necktie. It was the most odd color and design he had ever seen, but it was to be expected from the Fentons. The other had a long, chocolate cake roll.

"I don't understand, what is this for?"

"It's your birthday too, you know. Happy Birthday Vlad!"

Vlad squeaked. Or squealed. Whether it was heard or not is debatable.

"You forgot again, didn't you?"

"I... I... thank you."

"Oh look! Danny-boy's making a wish! I'mma get the candles. And Fenton fire extingusiher." Jack disappeared.

Vlad looked over to Danny, who was surrounded by expectant visitor.

"Make a wish!" Maddie joked.

\--

Vlad exploring his house, deep in thought. His mansion felt lonely. There were a lot of massive rooms, but none of them had anything valueable inside.

He spots a gift box in the corner. It was stuck between a drawer and a couch. It was dusty and had a lot of cobwebs.

Curious to what was inside it, he untied the ribbon and took of the lid.

He checked his phone for the date. October 15.

He laughed.

\--

"Aren't you too old for glow in the dark stickers?"

"Shut up Jazz."

"Whatever you say, little bro. Mom's making your favorite by the way."

Danny flew down from the ceiling and turned the lights off to admire his work. In his ceiling and around the walls were constellations out of glow-in-the-dark stars.

It was incredibly childish, but ehhhhh, it looked great.

He really didn't understand what it was about.

He was off on patrol as Phantom when Plasimus showed up.

"Little Badger, I come in peace, believe it or not."

"Yeah, like I'll buy that. What are you up to, Plasimus."

"Nothing. I remembered you liked green." He felt something hard collide with his chest and Vlad sped off, vanishing with out a trace.

"Aww shucks." Phantom frowned. He looks at the offending object in his hands. "A gift box?"

If Phantom ever showed up at Vlad's lonely mansion after Danny fixed the stars up in his room, Vlad wouldn't be complaining.

"What are you doing here, little badger?"

"Uh... I don't really understand what all that was about, but

..." Danny rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Thanks so much. Ok bye." Then phased through the floor. Then resurfaced again. "I don't got any money so I couldn't buy you anything so sorry so I won't bother you for a few weeks unless you do something weird again. I'd wis-- I mean, I'd tell you to make a Happy Birthday wish but we know how that would turn out so... Happy Birthday just don't make weird wishes. Ok bye."

Young Danny Fenton was a good kid.

Danny is still a good kid.

**_Ok I forced the wish part here but thinking of wish prompted me for a birthday party but i just blanked out. I didn't want to make a desiree fic so yeah. Idk when danny and vlad's birthday was so yeah. This wish prompt took me a good time to think of a story. Ok i'll stop now. But dayum the next prompts are so hard to think a story around on._**


End file.
